So THAT’S what’s going on!

From endless twitter storms (such as the viral response to Trump’s tweeted golf ball knocking Hillary Clinton to her knees last week), to wry comedic turnarounds like Sean Spicer’s Emmy debut, to international pissing contests (Trump informing the UN that “we will totally destroy North Korea” in response to “Rocket Man’s” repeated missile tests), the world appears to have gone mad.

Add to that the increase in opioid addiction, no resolution of the health care crisis in sight, random acts of terrorism and hatred, and the recent violent hurricanes, earthquakes, and other symptoms of planetary distress, and the expression “going to Hell in a handbasket” seems most apt. (As a matter of fact, I did see a bumper sticker the other day that would have been amusing were it not pretty much true: “Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?”)

But when we can understand that there are celestial influences underpinning much of what we observe on our little blue planet, and that sometimes a fierce storm prefaces the calm we all hope for, it helps.

In the field of healing, it’s understood that until you are willing see the extent of an injury or disease, trying to heal it is futile. And that’s what’s going on now. The dark underbelly of corporate government (a system far older than the short time you and I have been alive, since in its current form it dates back to the time of the Enclosure Acts that displaced most of the English peasantry, spread to encompass the rest of Europe, and eventually resurfaced here in the Americas with the attempted decimation of Native people and the establishment of slavery) is finally coming to light. The dirty secrets are revealed, the monsters crawl out from under the rocks, the elephant in the room is undeniably visible to all of us. And though this process is painful and often terrifying, viewing it as a healing crisis and not the end of the world will restore calm and help us regain peace of mind.